Waimea United Church of Christ

Luke 7:36-50“Forgiving Our Debts”

Don’t you just love a dinner party? This last
Sunday at our evening Bible Study, someone asked how it was that our study of
the Bible, which had started out with really just a time of purely studying the
Bible, had become this whole dinner party. Then, it was remembered that our
dear sister Sally Molander, who is now feasting up in heaven with God, would
invite the bible study group over to her house. She said that she had to cook
dinner anyway, might as well have everyone over.She had such a gracious heart.

When we
consider the story that Tom read aloud for us from the pulpit this morning, we
might tend to read into it that the Pharisee who invited Jesus might have had
some evil intent of entrapment in mind when he brought Jesus into his home.
Yet, the bible does not really say that. We just tend to infer evil intent of
all Pharisees even though we know that there were some Pharisees who were sided
with Jesus. We recall specifically Nicodemus, Matthew, and Joseph of Arimathea.

Some
theologians point to the fact that Simon the Pharisee did not show good
hospitality to Jesus. Jesus was, for instance, no offered a foot washing or a
holy kiss upon his arrival. However, this might have just been a careless
oversight. Another explanation would be that this Simon has been connected
perhaps with Simon the Leper of the Gospels. There are some similarities. This
might also explain why Simon did not kiss Jesus. Yet, it is unclear. If he had
been a leper, I think Luke would have mentioned this. However, I do believe
that the Pharisee invited Jesus to the meal because he felt he needed to
experience healing in his own life.

I want us
to consider the woman who anointed Jesus as well. For sure, she was not invited
into the house for the meal. The question is how did she slip past the guards
at the main gate? She must have snuck in, right? Or, was she a regular visitor
to the house, and the sin that she carries has something to do with the
Pharisee? Why didn’t the Pharisee, Simon, simply have her removed? How is it
that she is allowed to sneak in and touch Jesus at all?

I must make sure that we see this happening
in the proper light and with the scene laid out correctly. Most of the time we
see this scene with Jesus seated on a stool or a chair with the woman in front
of him. Think back to all the representations in artwork and movies. Yet, the
Bible is clear that the woman was actually behind Jesus. More likely than not,
Jesus would have been reclining on the ground, leaning on his left side. So,
now we can imagine correctly that the woman is at the feet of a reclining
Jesus. The food of the feast is in front of Jesus, and the woman is leaning
over his feet from behind.

As she
leans over Jesus, we see that her hair is falling forward, touching his feet.
From behind the hair fall is an obscured face of a sorrowful woman that is
shedding tears. She uses her hair then to wipe away her own tears.

Why is she
crying? All that the bible tells us is that she is a sinner. We actually do not
know or even really have any clue as to what this woman’s sin might be. Did she
use the Lord’s name in vain? Did she break the Sabbath? Did she kill someone?
Did she steal? Did she covet or commit adultery? In those days, it was really
easy to “sin” and become therefore a sinner because of the myriad sub-statutes
that were enforced by the Pharisees. Is she a sinner because she touched pork?
Maybe she ate shellfish? Remember how Jesus got in trouble with this same group
for simply healing on the Sabbath?

You know,
in our times today, we spend a whole lot of time and energy (especially in our
politics) with this very issue of “Who did what wrong?” A couple of years ago,
an acquaintance sent a picture out on a social media site about the horrors of
ISIS, that being the once powerful now decimated Islamic State in Syria. The
picture showed a man with a black hood over his head kneeling before a firing
squad. What I noticed right away in the picture was that the ten or so men with
machine guns that surrounded the hooded prisoner were standing in a circle. It
was the infamous “circular firing squad.”If they all shot at once, they would most likely all die!

Okay, here
we go: This is the core of the Christian message and why Jesus went to the
Cross! It makes absolutely no difference what we have done wrong in our lives.
And, when we start pointing out others’ sins, we have joined that circular
firing squad. Humans do wrong because we are human. We fail because no matter
how hard we try in this life to get things right by God, we fail.

Personally
none of us should care what sin this woman has in her life. Apparently even
Jesus is not concerned with the particulars of her failings. She is now
remorseful and repentant. She is shedding tears at the feet of her Lord. Let
all who have sinned, not point fingers at other people (like the Pharisees) but
rather come to that realization of brokenness with a contrite heart. Let us all
bow at the feet of Jesus with tears in our eyes.

Not only
with tears in her eyes, wiping the feet of Jesus with her hair, the woman
anoints Jesus and actually is kissing his feet. She brings an alabaster jar
with precious salve. This woman is not poor. Maybe she is actually of the
pharisaical class herself? She is not there to eat at the feast, or to even
come forward. She stays behind Jesus and soothes him. Where would you want to
be? I would want to get behind Jesus myself!

I love the
fact that she takes the precious oil and anoints Jesus. If you recall last
week, there was a question being answered by John the Baptist as to who Jesus
actually was. The people are calling Jesus “A great prophet.” The Pharisees at
the feast now refer to Jesus as a great prophet. Yet, this sinner woman knows
who Jesus is! He is the Christ! “Christ” means “anointed.” Amazingly we see the
sinner anointing Christ—not the Pharisees! Once Jesus has the oil upon him,
everyone can see that he has been anointed, that he is the Christ. Cannot you
see that Jesus is the anointed one? How can you miss it?!

This last
Thursday morning the West Kauai Ministers were meeting down at Salt Pond beach
for our time of fellowship and prayer. Pastor Merritt of the Baptist church
here in town brought coffee. There was also that powdered creamer in a plastic
jar. We opened it up to put in the coffee, and all of us got covered by white
creamer as the wind gusted in that moment. “Look, we are all anointed!” said
another pastor. You could just see it on us. So it was with Christ: Everyone could
see at the meal that he was the anointed one!

The host
objects inwardly. The bible says that he spoke inwardly (that would be a good
translation of the Greek). Jesus hears his private thoughts and reacts. Yes,
Jesus can hear our private thoughts. If that is not a reason why we all need
forgiveness, I do not know what is.

Jesus gives
the parable to the two debtors. The creditor, realizing that neither can pay
(that is neither can redeem themselves), forgives, relieves, excuses the burden
of debt, both large and small.Jesus
then asks the question, “Which would love more? The one who is forgiven a
little or a lot?”

Lest we
miss the connection that Jesus is making here, let me point it out to you most
plainly: Love and forgiveness are tied together in spiritual sense. We can
think of it like this: If we do not forgive, then we cannot love. If we do not
love, we cannot forgive. Jesus goes so far as to infer that the greater we
love, the greater is our capacity to forgive.

All of this
being said, I must point out one interesting fact about this story in Luke: The
woman who is a sinner does not even ask Jesus for forgiveness. She is behind
Jesus washing his feet wither tears because SHE SIMPLY LOVES JESUS!Jesus granting her the forgiveness is merely
a response to her love being displayed to him in that moment. That’s cool.
Jesus in fact never commands us to forgive everybody. He commands us all to
love God and one another. If we are doing that, then the forgiveness seems to
voluntary reflex.

The Pharisee
is not happy when Jesus forgives her. He is not happy that she loves on Jesus
first. He is just not a very happy Pharisee. I feel for him—especially when
Jesus tells the woman, “Your faith has saved you!” She is awarded salvation.
She just got forgiven and therefore redeemed to the life eternal in the Kingdom
of God. She has been invited to the greater feast with Jesus in heaven.

Well, it
can be our hope that the rest of the people in that house for the feast that
day understood what just happened. Maybe in seeing and hearing the interaction
between Jesus and the woman there would be tears in their own eyes. Maybe they
would see that Jesus is truly the anointed one. Maybe their hearts would be
filled with love rather than intrigue and suspicion.

Strangely,
Luke does not share the follow-up with the rest of the characters in this part
of the Gospel. Of course, the question we ask of these others should be the
question we ask of ourselves: Can we love Jesus so much? Are we behind Jesus
with tears in our eyes? Are we ready to be forgiven? Are we ready for the faith
that can save us?